Family asks for memories of slain son

Photo by Daniel Freel/New Jersey Herald - On the 20th anniversary of his murder, Jeremy Giordano's mother, Loretta, speaks during a memorial service at the First Baptist Church of Sussex on Wednesday in Sussex Borough.

SUSSEX BOROUGH -- Jeremy Giordano may not be around anymore, but his spirit lives on.

"He would go out of his way to do things for other people," recalled his uncle Joe Hanser. "He was such a giving person."

Giordano was remembered Wednesday night, the 20th anniversary of his death, at a "Legacy of Hope" celebration at the First Baptist Church of Sussex. Giordano, who was 22 when he died, and Giorgio Gallara were fatally shot by two men who ordered pizzas in order to kill whoever delivered them.

While the service was to remember Giordano, it also celebrated the legacy he left behind -- the parts of him his mother sees in each of her three grandchildren born to her daughters such as loving sweets or playing with LEGO toys.

"He lives through my wife and I and our children," said Joe Giordano, Jeremy's father.

Joe Giordano also said his son's legacy lives on through his family's actions, which include being active in the church, establishing a scholarship fund for students at Wallkill Valley Regional High School and having his daughter name her deli business in Lake Hiawatha Jeremiah's Gourmet Deli and Catering.

Valerie Kammerer, his younger sister, said 20 years after her brother's death, the pain still feels fresh.

"We mourned the loss of Jeremy and his soul 20 years ago. Through the 20 years that have gone by we've mourned the loss of the future lives that would have been here if he was still here," Kammerer said. "We mourn the loss of his presence at holidays, birthdays, the birth of our children, the marriages that we have had. The triumphs and the failure we've had too."

"We didn't get to see his children," Theresa Navarro, his older sister, said. "We didn't get to see his failures, his triumphs. I think that upsets me more than him not being able to see mine."

"I wonder what he would have been like. Would I have gotten grandchildren from Jeremy? I love my grandchildren. I'd lay down my life for my grandchildren," Loretta Giordano, his mother, said. "It's always going to be missing. I'll always have to deal with that absence. That hole."

To help fill the hole Jeremy Giordano left behind, the family started a Facebook page, "Jeremysvoice," where friends are asked to share stories and pictures of him to help people remember him.

"People are saying he delivered pizza to them. We want to hear those stories. They're stories we haven't heard, and they are uplifting to us because it allows us to see a side we didn't get to experience," Kammerer said. "And by them sharing their stories we get a little piece of him back and are able to hold on to him."

In addition to scripture, songs and stories, a tree was planted on Wednesday in Jeremy Giordano's honor in front of the church.

Pastor Wade Abbott clearly remembers the only words Jeremy Giordano ever said to him: "I'll see you again, pastor."

"Not in this life," Abbott solemnly said during the ceremony. "Our hope is that we will see you in the next life."

About 60 family members, friends and community members attended the hour-long service at the First Baptist Church of Sussex to honor the Hardyston man and remember the great things about him.

"It means the world to us," Loretta Giordano said. "I don't think you can put into the words the appreciation and love that has been shown to us tonight."

"This (Jeremy's murder) affected all of us as a community. Our pain rippled and touched so many," Kammerer said. "Not just this community, not just Sussex County, but everywhere. It went throughout the nation, and they felt our pain."

Theresa Navarro, Jeremy's older sister, said last Christmas she went to visit her brother's grave and asked him to give her a sign, a reason why he was taken from them. A few weeks later she got an email asking her to participate in a state program that was being reinstituted that brings the victims of crimes into the prisons to explain the effects on the victims. She participated in the program 12 years ago before it was cut.

"I'm one step closer every day to finding a purpose in Jeremy's death," Navarro said.